Mathlouthi: The World Cup is an obsession for me
2016 was a year to remember for Tunisia goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi. Running out for his club Etoile Sportive du Sahel, where he has spent his entire 14-year career to date, the custodian picked up a league championship winners’ medal and a runners-up medal in the CAF Super Cup and helped his side reach the semi-finals of the CAF Confederation Cup.
With his national team, meanwhile, he played a part in their qualification for the 2017 CAF Africa Cup of Nations and was also between the posts as the Eagles of Carthage kicked off the third round of the African qualifiers of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ with a brace of wins. As if that were not enough, Mathlouthi married his fiancée in May, at a wedding attended by some of the great and the good of Tunisian football, among them Aymen Abdennour. Life has certainly been good for the 32-year-old keeper these last few months.
With the Africa Cup of Nations about to get under way in Gabon and Tunisia’s hopes of appearing at Russia 2018 well and truly alive, he now has the opportunity to set that record straight. Discussing those challenges, he said: “We’re obviously going to do all we can to get the best possible result at the Africa Cup of Nations, which is a competition that’s very important to us. Personally, though, if I had to choose between winning the Africa Cup of Nations and playing in the World Cup, I’d go for the World Cup without any shadow of a doubt.”
He added: “I’d even swap my two African Champions League titles to go to the World Cup. I had a little taste of what it might be like in 2007, when I played in the Club World Cup in Japan. We beat Pachuca in the quarter-finals, but lost to Boca Juniors in the semis and Urawa Red (Diamonds) in the match for third place. I still have great memories of the tournament despite those defeats. My biggest dream of all, though, is to play in the World Cup with my country, Tunisia. I have to say that it’s an obsession for me.”
“We’ve beaten Libya and Guinea, who are both good sides, and we’ve made a good start to the competition, but that’s all it is: a start,” he said, before looking forward to Tunisia’s back-to-back meetings with the Leopards this coming summer: “We have to look ahead to 2017. Those two games are going to be decisive. They’re the matches that will either light up the road to Russia or see it fall into darkness.”
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